[Timboli]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I think that Napoleon's saying applies, roughly paraphrased, never ascribe to malice what can be explained with incompetence.

I'd say both & more. A mix of a lot of foolish things.

The reason for Geo restrictions is simply that well before easy shipping, few publishers published outside a geographic area. There were a lot of reasons for that and it makes sense for physical books, but basically it comes down to it's an old business model and dealing with multiple publishers makes financial sense for many successful authors.

I perfectly understand the traditional reasons, that are easily gotten around by purchasing outside your country.

However, when it comes to digital and physical, I see them as separate products, despite the similarity. So when a publisher props up low physical book sales with ebook ones at a higher price than they should be, to make up for the profit shortfall, they are engaging in an unethical practice. Likewise if a publisher in my country, prevents me buying an ebook from Amazon (etc) or only at an exorbitant price, despite only offering the physical book themselves.

Despite what they want to foster, it is not a case of buy the ebook or buy the physical book, for most of us. As many of us have moved on, and only want to buy the ebook, seeing the physical book as a redundant product.

The issue of orphaned books, i.e. technically books where no one is sure who actually holds the copyright, but could be expanded to books where the copyright holder is not actively interested in making the book available, is an issue that most will acknowledge, but there simply isn't the political will to craft a solution.

Clearly society needs to move to a position of - Make available within a specified time frame or lose sole rights. The onus should be with the actual copyright owner to make it abundantly clear they have that copyright, and they need to take reasonable action regularly to retain sole rights. Withholding beyond a certain duration, should be unacceptable ... and that should apply to more than books. There should also be a price test, as set by a governing body, as to what is fair and reasonable.

Once something has been published or provided to the public by the original author or owner, then they should lose the right to withhold indefinitely. That doesn't mean they lose any right to recompense, just that they will have less say if they don't take action themselves.

That's my view anyway. A view based on moderate capitalism, not the rampant rabid animal version of capitalism we have now. And it isn't a true democracy if the rich call all the shots, like they do now.